An Israeli soldier was sentenced to 14 days in prison for his role in an incident in which a Palestinian delivered a stillborn baby after being forced to wait at a checkpoint inside the Occupied West Bank, the Israeli Army said Friday. "The incident is one that could have been prevented," the Israeli military said, adding that the squad commander who was in charge of the checkpoint at the time was removed from his position and sentenced to 14 days in jail.
Nahil Abu Raja was heading from her village to hospital in Nablus with her relatives earlier this month when she was held up at an Israeli checkpoint outside the Occupied West Bank city while she was in labor.
"The soldiers at the checkpoint did not allow the vehicle to enter Nablus via the checkpoint as they did not possess a vehicular entrance permit," the army said in a statement.
An ambulance called by the family arrived about 30 minutes later, but Raja "gave birth to a premature still-born baby and was evacuated by the ambulance to the hospital in Nablus for further treatment," the army said.
Between 2000 and 2006, at least 68 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints, including 35 who miscarried and five who died in childbirth, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Hundreds of checkpoints and other Israeli barriers truncate the Occupied West Bank, severely restricting the movement of people and trade inside the Palestinian territory.
Front Page Features